I got an email from Mike about obtaining the serial number for his Compaq/HP DL360 running Windows 2000. You can do this easily but you will need the HP driver pack which you can get from here: http://h18023.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/locate/20_1123.html.

You can use either:

• HP Survey utility – this was a small downloadable application which creates a text file with complete system information, comprising serial number, components, firmware and operating system information. This was phased out in the newer drivers and therefore is not recommended for new servers.
• HP Insight diagnostic online utility – this in effect replaced the survey, it provides the same information in an XML file, but also allowed you to carry out online diagnostics.
• HP Insight Management agents – this is the web agent component of the driver pack which allows you to view the system health and all the firmware/configuration information, it’s accessed typically by typing http://servername:2301 – this re-directs you to the secure version of the url. In the later driver packs the login name is tied into active directory – otherwise the login information is controlled by an acl file on your system drive.

You should typically be using the latest driver pack for the specified operating system as that will contain the bug fixes/enhancements that you require – but do ensure that your firmware is up to date, particularly when you’re upgrading legacy systems (the Proliant R ranges), the firmware can affect the operating system and the drivers. I remember upgrading the driver pack on a Compaq 2500R running NT 4 to something like 5.5 or 6.1, and the server blue screening, and found after a few minutes testing that it was because the system firmware was ancient and needed to be upgraded.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 10:23 pm and is filed under Blades, Servers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.